The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
1 bell meant the first half hour after the watch began;
2 bells meant the second half hour;
3 bells meant the third half hour;
4 bells meant the fourth half hour;
5 bells meant the fifth half hour;
6 bells meant the sixth half hour;
7 bells meant the seventh half hour;
8 bells meant the eighth half hour and the end of the watch.
For example, if two bells rang out during the first dog watch, it would be, by land reckoning, 5:00 PM.
About the Author
Avi was born in 1937 into a family of writers extending as far back as the nineteenth century. He was raised in New York City. His twin sister, now also a writer, gave him the name Avi because she was either unable or unwilling to use the name his parents had given him.
When Avi was young, his teachers often told him that his writing didn’t make much sense. He later found out he had symptoms of dyslexia, a frustrating problem that makes writing difficult. But Avi didn’t give up.
He began his career by writing plays while working as a librarian. When his first child was born, he started to write for young people. His first book, Things That Sometimes Happen: Very Short Stories for Little Listeners, was published in 1970. Since then, he has authored seventy books, which span nearly every genre and have received almost every major prize, including the 2003 Newbery Medal for Crispin: The Cross of Lead, two Newbery Honors, two Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Avi has also won many children’s choice awards, and he frequently travels to schools around the country to talk to his readers. Additionally, he is the cofounder of ART, the Authors Readers Theatre, a group of writers who perform theatrical adaptations of their books throughout the country.
Avi lives in Denver, Colorado. Visit him online at www.avi-writer.com.
Q&A with Avi
Q: Why did you become a writer? Was there anything else you had dreamed of becoming?
A: The family story is that my first ambition was to be a garbage collector. If you look at my office, it’s a goal I have achieved. At various times I wanted to fly airplanes, be an engineer, biologist, baseball player, historian. I think I became a writer because I loved to read.
Q: You have written stories in a wide range of genres. What are some of your sources for inspiration?
A: I read and enjoy a wide range of genres. Every story has its own telling. The way a story is told is part of what the story is. A funny story needs energy and a sharp pacing. A sad story needs more attention to a steady pacing, with perhaps greater attention to the choice of words and the lyrical flow of each sentence. A story that is suspenseful needs carefully constructed chapters to build a sense of crisis.
Q: What were you like as a child? Were you drawn to stories set at sea?
A: My father liked to fish, so family vacations were often by the sea. When you are near the sea, there are always boats, many different kinds of boats. There are often old boats too, half buried in the ocean swells. If you read Treasure Island, as I did, you have a sense of story about every boat. Sailors — and I have known some — are great storytellers. In many ways the story of America is the story of ships and the men who sailed them.
Q: Which writers, if any, were you influenced by growing up?
A: Every writer influences me. The first writer I came to love was Thornton W. Burgess, who wrote animal stories for young readers. In my day there were many “boy” books, such as The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift. I read them by the shelf. They were adventure stories, full of mystery.
Q: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
A: I am a reader, a cook, a runner, and someone who enjoys the outdoors.
Q: Your descriptions of the Seahawk and the life of its crew are very vivid. Did you spend time on a ship as research? If not, can you please explain your research process?
A: I did spend some time on old ships. But there is a vast library about sea travel. Diaries are the best because they give you great details, as well as the language that people used. Most importantly, they help you understand the way people thought about their lives and how they lived.
Q: What appeals to you about writing stories set in different time periods?
A: I read history for pleasure. History has millions of stories. It is a story. Each period of time has its own fascination.
Q: You mention your inspiration for Charlotte’s story in your preface, but how did Charlotte’s character come to you?
A: My writing process is to constantly rewrite, and characters gradually evolve. I like what the poet Robert Frost said: “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” I am, after all, telling myself a story too. I want to shape a story so that it is fun to read.
Q: Charlotte remains popular more than twenty years after you created her. What do you think makes her so appealing?
A: Charlotte learns who she is and what she can achieve in a world that wishes her to be less. I suspect many young people see her predicament as their own.
Q: Major events in the story depend on Charlotte’s misjudging the people around her: Zachariah, Captain Jaggery, Keetch, and her own father. What is your advice to young readers for how they might make wiser judgments about people and situations?
A: Live by questions, not answers.
Draw Your Own Ship
“[T]he Seahawk was what is known as a brig, a two-masted ship (with a snow mast behind the main), perhaps some seven hundred tons in weight, 107 feet stern to bow, 130 feet deck to mainmast cap…. Her two masts, raked slightly back, were square-rigged. She had a bowsprit too, one that stood out from her bow like a unicorn’s horn.”
Learn how to draw a brig by following the steps below!
Draw the ship’s hull and bowsprit.
Add the main boom, main mast, and foremast.
Add the gaff and trestletrees.
Add the trysail, mainsails, and foresails.
Add the forestaysail.
Add the flying jib.
Using this image as a guide, use a pen to trace over the flying jib, the staysail underneath, the mainsails, the trysail, and the hull. Add some water for fun!
Erase your pencil marks.
Sailor’s Duff
“Breakfast was set out in steerage, at the mates’ mess. Served by Zachariah, it consisted of badly watered coffee and hard bread with a dab of molasses … Dinner at midday was the same. Supper was boiled salted meats, rice, beans, and again bad coffee. Twice a week we might have duff, the seaman’s delight: boiled flour and raisins.”
Charlotte’s meals weren’t fancy, but this simple cake is an easy and tasty treat you can make at home! (Please ask an adult to help you with the boiled water.)
Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• ½ cup molasses
• 1½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup boiled water
• ½ cup raisins (optional)
Instructions
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy.
Add egg and molasses to butter-sugar mixture, and mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and salt together. If using raisins, add them to the dry mixture in this step.
Alternately add small amounts of the dry mixture and boiled water to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Turn mixture into a greased 9-inch cake pan or 8 x 8–inch baking pan and place in the oven. The steam from the boiled water will bake your duff in about 1½ to 2 hours. Make sure not to peek!
Knots
“You may believe me too when I say that I shirked no work. Even if I’d wanted to, it was clear from the start that shirking would not be allowed…. I stood watch as dawn blessed the sea and as the moon cut the midnigh
Learn how to identify some of the knots Charlotte may have tied when she became part of the crew!
Bowline
Carrick Bend
Figure Eight
Reef Knot
Sheet Bend
Your True Confessions
“I was given a volume of blank pages … and instructed to keep a daily journal of my voyage across the ocean so that the writing of it should prove of educational value to me….
“Keeping that journal then is what enables me to relate now in perfect detail everything that transpired during that fateful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 1832.”
While Charlotte may have started her journal because her father ordered her to do so, keeping a journal is a great way to remember something that happened to you and how you felt as you were going through it. Here are some tips to help you get started!
Grab a blank notebook (preferably one with a cover that inspires you) and your favorite pen or pencil. Having materials you like to work with makes writing in your journal more enjoyable.
Find a quiet place. Deep thinking can be hard to do in a busy or loud environment. Choose a spot where you can focus on your thoughts away from any distractions. Or maybe you’re the type of person who likes to write while listening to music. In that case, turn on your favorite tunes.
Reflect. Spend time thinking about your day or what you’ve recently experienced, such as a vacation or something important you’ve accomplished.
Start writing. Be sure to include lots of details, as well as your feelings.
Don’t limit yourself. While you can definitely share your journal with others (like Charlotte did), it can also be a private place to record what you’re thinking and feeling. Don’t worry about how your journal sounds or if your spelling is perfect. Remember, it’s not homework, so relax.
Treat your journal like a time capsule. Write down your favorite things, your interests, the names of your best friends, where you’d like to travel someday, what you’d like to accomplish. Make sure to date your entries so you can reread them later and see how you’ve changed and grown.
Have fun! You don’t have to journal every single day if you can’t get into the habit. You’re recording what’s happening in your life so you can process it now and remember it later. Enjoy the experience!
Further Reading
If you enjoyed The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, here are some other timeless seafaring adventures you might like!
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Set in 1866, this science-fiction novel, told from the perspective of renowned scientist Pierre Aronnax, chronicles a harpoon ship’s expedition to track down and destroy a mysterious ship-sinking sea creature.
Escape from Home: Beyond the Western Sea Book One by Avi
In 1851, Maura and Patrick O’Connell, driven from their Irish home by a cruel English landlord, unwittingly join the landlord’s younger son, Laurence Kirkle—who is fleeing an abusive family situation—on a journey that takes them to the port of Liverpool on the first step of their quest to reach America.
Into the Storm: Beyond the Western Sea Book Two by Avi
In the continuation of Escape from Home, Maura, Patrick, and Laurence find themselves at the mercy of their shady fellow passengers. Ahead lies their future in America, filled with danger and more crises than they ever anticipated.
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
In this fictional autobiography, castaway Robinson Crusoe documents the twenty-eight years he spent on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Young Jim Hawkins describes the dangerous adventures he encounters on his search for the buried treasure of the notorious pirate Captain Flint.
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
A riveting account of Richard Henry Dana’s voyage from Boston to South America and around Cape Horn to California, and what life at sea was like in the early nineteenth century.
ALSO BY AVI
Escape from Home:
Beyond the Western Sea Book One
Into the Storm:
Beyond the Western Sea Book Two
Midnight Magic
Murder at Midnight
Nothing But the Truth
Perloo the Bold
Romeo and Juliet Together (and Alive!) at Last
Something Upstairs
Copyright © 1990 by Avi. Preface copyright © 2003 by Avi.
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All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book was originally published in hardcover by Orchard Books in 1990.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-92247-0
This edition first printing, August 2012
Cover art by Ryan Andrews
Cover design by Natalie C. Sousa
*I shall of necessity use certain words during my account that might not be readily familiar—such as rigging, royal yard, or reefed. They were not words I knew when I first came to the ship, but rather terms I learned in the course of my voyage. Since many people today have no such knowledge, I have included a diagram of the Seahawk in the appendix at the end of this account. You may consult it from time to time so as to better understand what I refer to. The diagram will, as well, spare me unnecessary explanations and speed my narrative.
Regarding time aboard a ship, a fuller explanation may also be found in the appendix.
Avi, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle